Anti-LGBTQ+ school board candidates lose races in Oklahoma & Missouri

Voters in Tulsa, Oklahoma recently defeated school board candidates who support Ryan Walters, the anti-LGBTQ+ head of the state’s Department of Education. Concurrently, voters in St. Louis, Missouri rejected 13 right-wing school board candidates endorsed by a local anti-LGBTQ+ radio host.

At least two of the three defeated school board candidates in Tulsa supported Walters’ desire to have the state school board revoke the accreditation of the racially diverse Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) district. The state can oversee the district’s management if its accreditation is revoked. Walters says the district suffers from poor leadership and an “infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party” which has led to poor academic performance, alleged financial mismanagement, and the proliferation of “woke ideology,” according to the PBS NewsHour.

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Three candidates who all publicly opposed Walters’ plan — newcomers Calvin Moniz and Sarah Smith and incumbent John Croisant — won their races.

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“Ryan Walters has … elevated hate groups and extremists as he runs the Oklahoma State Department of Education into the ground. Tuesday’s election results show that voters have noticed, and they’ve had their fill of him,” said Laurel Powell, a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) spokesperson.

The HRC noted that one Wade Burleson, a member of Walters’ faith advisory council, supported Judd Blevins, a now-former member of Enid’s city council who was outed as a neo-Nazi. Voters ousted Blevins in a Tuesday night recall election after national media outlets noted photos showing him at the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Walters, who wants to ban LGBTQ+ books but teach the Bible in public school history classes, has previously pushed the transphobic lie about schools providing litterboxes to students who identify as cats. He also referred to teachers’ unions as “terrorist organizations” and illegally tried to make rules banning LGBTQ+ books and transgender bathroom access in schools. He has appeared at events hosted by Moms for Liberty, a right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ “parent’s rights” group that has been called an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also appointed Chaya Raichik, an anti-LGBTQ+ activist who goes by Libs of Tik Tok online, as a Library Media Advisor for the state (even though she has no educational experience, doesn’t reside in Oklahoma, and has made posts that have led to bomb threats against students).

Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Missouri 13 school board candidates endorsed by local anti-LGBTQ+ radio host Marc Cox all lost their races. The candidates’ platforms included “anti-diversity talking points and opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and protections.”

One candidate, Adriana Kuhn, opposes so-called “gender indoctrination” (a right-wing dog whistle for trans-inclusive school policies) and was endorsed by the transphobic Francis Howell Families political action committee.

Cox has previously hosted political figures on his show who oppose trans-inclusive bathroom policies, consider gender-affirming care as a form of “child mutilation,” and champion white nationalism.